Saturday, 17 August 2013

History of Liverpool

Ian Rush - The greatest goalscorer in Liverpool's history

It was a great honour for LFChistory.net to be granted an
interview with the one and only Ian Rush, Liverpool's greatest ever
goalscorer. He is a humble guy who deserves his legend status at
Liverpool probably more than most.When did Liverpool first show an interest in you at Chester?

Allan Oakes the manager at Chester told me that Liverpool wanted to sign
me. This was in February or March 1980. I refused to go to Liverpool
because I didn’t feel I was good enough to play for them. They were such
a big club and I didn’t think I was good enough to go. They came again
back in April. Paisley invited me to Anfield and Melwood and I went
there and I realised it was such a great place. It would be too good of a
chance to turn it down. I think it was in April 1980 when I signed for
Liverpool.

You were still apprehensive about the move to Liverpool?

Yeah, but I felt if I wasn’t good enough I could always go back to
Chester. I thought, 'I might as well go and see what it was like'. After
3-4 months I realised I was good enough to play for them. Even though
there were some good players there I wasn´t out of place. I was at the
reserves then and most in the reserves were good enough for the first
team and I knew I was as good as them so that’s when I realised I could
make it at the top given the chance.

Bob Paisley said you were close to leaving Liverpool?

Yeah that’s true. I gave myself two years to get into the Liverpool
first team. I played in the last seven games of my first season in the
first team because Steve Heighway and David Johnson were injured. I
thought I had done very well but the only problem was that I hadn’t
scored a goal. The next season I was back in the reserves. Heighway and
Johnson were fit. I went to see Bob Paisley and told him I wanted to
leave because I felt I deserved a place in the team. Bob Paisley said,
'Yeah, you can leave but the reason why you’re not in the team is you’re
not selfish enough. If you had been scoring goals you had been in the
team. No matter how well you played you didn’t score goals. You can go
on the transfer list.' As I was going out I said 'I’ll show you I can
score goals'.

I scored 7-8 goals for the reserves and fortunately for me David Johnson
got injured. Bob Paisley gave me a chance. I came on as a sub against
Oulu and scored my first goal, scored two against Exeter City in the cup
and two against Leeds United. As you say the rest is history, but later
when you find out when I spoke to Bob Paisley, he never had the
intention to put me on the transfer list. That’s typical how Bob Paisley
knew to get the best out of his players. Bob Paisley was very good at
his job. If players wanted to sort out matters with Bob Paisley they
could be in his office for an hour and the players come out happy. You
ask them 'What happened?' 'I don’t know.', they would say. They would
come out really happy, but he still hasn’t answered. That goes to show
how good he was.

Would you say Bob Paisley was a tough manager?

I wouldn’t say tough but he had more knowledge than anyone I know. Even
in training he wasn’t looking, the next moment he would tell you: 'What
about that one you missed?', 'What are you doing relaxing?' He knew
everything about training and the opposition. You’ve got lot of coaches
who tell you, you must do that and must do this, but they don’t
understand them. He got over his message to the players like they wanted
to.

What do you think of Roy Evans’ time in charge?

Roy Evans was a bit unlucky. He could have stayed there, but he wanted
to do what was best for Liverpool football club. Times are changing now
and obviously it wasn’t working. Evans had his chance. Well, I wouldn’t
say it didn’t work because they figured in Europe every year Roy Evans
was there. While he was good for the players, but maybe you could say he
was too nice. When you’re a manager you’ve got to be tough. If you
would ask Roy Evans now he would say he wasn’t as tough as he should
have been. He’s learnt that, but that’s too late. His knowledge of the
game and his ideas are very good.

Why weren’t clubs queing up for his services?

Maybe people think he is too nice. I think if he was hired as an
assistant manager people are scared because he was a manager at a big
club, he’s after their job. Roy Evans isn’t that kind of person. He goes
out to help the people at the club as best he can.

What do you think your best season was at Liverpool, the 1983-84 season or?

Goalscoring yes, but overall the season I enjoyed the most was 1985-86
when we won the double. As a individual it was maybe the 1983-84 season
when I scored 47 goals but as a team it was when we won the double. To
actually play in the first Merseyside cup final, against Everton. To be
losing 1-0 at half-time and win 3-1 and score two goals. We had won the
double. Everything rolled into one in this game, against the Everton
team which was the second best team in Europe then.

Everton was probably your favourite opponent.

Without a doubt. When I played against them I knew I was going to score a
goal [Big laugh]. I think I will to come out of retirement now just
against Everton.

Many supporters say the FA Cup final 1986 is their favourite game. When you hit the camera in the corner....

The game was superb. We played as a team, Steve McMahon was sub and
there were no English players playing for Liverpool then. Scottish,
Irish, Australian, Danish, there was no Englishman that actually played
in it.

When you decided to leave Liverpool. You never felt any bad sentiments towards you the farewell season?

No because I think supporters respected me. I played in every single
game. I scored 32 goals that season. I was on a high for Liverpool. I
could have easily sat back, scared of getting injured. That never came
into mind, because Liverpool is such a good club. Liverpool had a year
to look at people to replace me. It is important when you leave, you
leave on good terms and that’s what I actually did at Liverpool.

Were you close to joining Napoli three years before you joined Juventus, after the 1983-84 season?

Yes, I was. The chairman at the time was John Smith and he wouldn’t let
me speak to them. They offered Liverpool some very big money and I
wanted to speak to them. They asked for permission and John Smith said
no. I think if I had spoken to them I would have probably joined them.

Do you keep in touch with your old teammates at Juventus?

"I keep in touch with Pasquale Bruno and Tacconi the odd time. I just
came back from Venice. I was there with my family and I spoke to Bruno.
It’s probably he and Tacconi I keep most in touch with and Brio a little
bit. "I can remember you were in the stands at Anfield in the
1987-88 season watching the clash between QPR and Liverpool, the top two
teams then and you were just shaking your head.
John Barnes was getting down the wing and putting balls across and
Peter Beardsley was there as well. I would have scored more goals. When I
was playing at Juventus I was playing defensive forward. The football
didn’t suit me and you come back to Liverpool and seeing so many chances
being made, that’s where you want to be.

Platini had just left.

Yes, If he had stayed it would have been easier for me. When I met him,
he said to me, 'You've come at the wrong time to Juventus. You should
have been here 2-3 years ago when we had a better team’. Juventus
wouldn’t be successful because it was going through a transition. The
reason he left was because the supporters were starting to have a go at
him after he had been so fantastic for Juventus. He said , 'Well, I am
going to get out, this will be difficult for you'. And I thought to
myself, 'If he’s saying this, it’s going to be a hard season'. When I
came back to Liverpool I was a better all-round player. I think I grew
up in Italy. I knew all about the continental way of playing.

Many supporters thought they had seen the best of Ian Rush before you left for Italy....

From the point of view of scoring goals wise, before I left for Juventus
I did score more goals. I had become a much better all-round player
because I worked more outside the box. With the illness I had, I was
nowhere near fit the first 6-7 months after I had come back to
Liverpool. It was only towards the end of that season when the rest of
the players were getting tired I reached the same level of fitness as
them. I was doing extra training and it was draining me even more and
when I got on the pitch I was finding it hard to move.

Houllier has often mentioned you when he’s talking about his strikers having to defend....

As soon as your team is without the ball, you become the first defender.
Sammy Lee has been asked who was the best defender Liverpool ever had,
'Hansen, Lawrenson who else?' No, he says, 'Ian Rush'. A lot of strikers
have a shot at goal and then they switch off. The good ones get back
into position and think now you have to go past me, I am going to be a
defender. You have to learn to chase back. That's what I teach people at
my school, once they start scoring goals and think it’s easy, I take
them to the next level. Let’s see now if you can defend. They go, 'I
don’t have to defend.' You have to realise that you’ve got to defend if
you’re a striker. You’ve got to make it easier for your midfielders and
they try to make it easier for the defenders and they make it easy for
the goalkeeper.

Your apparent telepathy with Dalglish on the field?

The good players are those who are quick learners. When I first played
with Kenny Dalglish I used to stand there not thinking he could not put
the ball into the position I wanted it go, but 2-3 times he’d gone and
actually done it.. 'Oh shit', I said, 'I better make my run there if
this man could put the ball anywhere'. I was pretty quick. Kenny started
to realise I was quick as well. We didn’t speak a lot off the pitch but
on the pitch we just had a thing that was natural. I knew what Kenny
was good at and Kenny knew what I was good at. That was what made us
work so well as a pair. Kenny wouldn’t look up to see where I was, he
would just put the ball into space and I just knew Kenny was going to
put the ball there. The defenders were just left thinking, 'how does he
know the ball was going to get there.' But we did know.

When Kenny resigned. Did it come as a bolt out of the blue for you or did you expect something was on?

I did suspect really that something was wrong the way he had gone down
the few months before. But to resign as manager, that did come out as a
bolt out of the blue. We were doing well in the league, just done a 4
all draw against Everton. It was a big blow for everyone and it took us
until the next season to get over it really. I don’t think anyone will
know the real reason except Kenny.
Interview by Arnie and Stonie - Copyright - LFChistory.net